Thursday, December 06, 2012

Percy Harvin Could Be Frazier's Waterloo

On Thursday, two weeks after listing Percy Harvin as doubtful and four days after listing him as out, the Minnesota Vikings put Percy Harvin on the injured reserve list making him ineligible to return this season. The move comes at a time when the Vikings must win out to make the playoffs. And it comes in the aftermath of both Harvin's sideline criticism of quarterback Christian Ponder and head coach Leslie Frazier's Wednesday comments more than merely implying that something other than just an injury was keeping Harvin off the field.

In 2010, former Vikings' head coach Brad Childress brought Randy Moss back to the team. After several run-ins with Childress, Moss was cut loose. Childress' handling of the Moss situation was the final straw for a Vikings' organization already spent attempting to craft a positive public image for Childress and Childress was cut loose.

In many ways, Frazier has far less equity than did Childress at the time of his dismissal. Though Frazier is eminently more likable than Childress, Childress had at least made the playoffs--even if he did so in spite of himself. In his second full season with the Vikings, Frazier faces the strong possibility of a second straight losing season and a season that went into the tank after the Vikings met the meat of their schedule.

During the Vikings' early season success, Harvin was the team MVP. He made plays that were not there and offered Ponder a nooky blanket, catching passes behind, beneath, and over him and boosting Ponder's statistics to the point that Ponder had the greatest yards-at-catch versus yards-after-catch disparity in the NFL.

Whatever has happened behind the scenes with Harvin, one thing is certain--Frazier has mishandled the affair from an early stage. The Vikings never should have reached a point where even a mercurial personality such as Harvin could be prompted to voice displeasure over the guy feeding him hospital balls on the field.

Frazier seems to wear a "courage of my convictions" badge whenever addressing Ponder. That would be laudable were the conviction warranted. Standing in Ponder's corner, knowing that doing so could lead to Harvin's premature departure, only exacerbates a situation that Frazier could have forestalled had he merely had the courage to send an earlier signal to Ponder--one still not made--that Ponder's position as starting quarterback is not as secure as Ponder appears to believe it is.

Ultimately, this is going to have an unsatisfactory ending for someone--or for many.